People use emojis to mask their negative feelings, study suggests

FILE - A laptop with a laughing emoji face displayed is seen in this photo illustration on Oct. 15, 2018. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images) In day-to-day life, people often mask their negative emotions in an effort to keep the peace.

One example of this could be offering a polite smile when someone receives an unwanted gift.On the flip side, people getting married often feel they should show extreme happiness or tears of joy at the altar to convey their contentment of tying the knot.

In psychology, the term for these social norms is "display rules," which differ by culture and determine how, when, and where to express – or not express – certain emotions.Although display rules can help promote friendship and good-will between people, they can also have negative consequences for the person choosing to hide or change how they express their emotions, according to researchers behind a new study.With more social interactions occurring over text message and online, these display rules are also evolving.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo began investigating whether there are display rules that apply to emoji, and how these might affect a person’s well-being.Their study, published last week in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, suggests people use positive emojis to both express positive feelings and mask the more negative ones."As online socializing becomes more prevalent, people have become accustomed to embellishing their expressions and scrutinizing the appropriateness of their communication," study author Moyu Liu with the University of Tokyo said in a statement. "However, I realized that this may lead us to lose touch with our authentic emotions."A recent study suggests that eating chocolate,.